The world of work is currently changing more than ever. The Pandemic has shown us that constant presence in the office is not decisive for the success of a team and the quality of the tasks and that many things can also be worked on from home or other locations.
Why we decided to go for the 32-hour week
The classic 9-5 and 40 hours-week-model is increasingly being critically questioned and is, slowly but surely, no longer up to date.
The flexible and independent division of work packages is becoming more and more critical in terms of work-life balance and increasing motivation. The young generation no longer wants to choose between work and pleasure, but rather to combine these two aspects.
We at HROS.io have therefore decided to break up the rigid work model and step on a new path – in the form of Flexi Work and 32-hour week with the same salary. 4-day week? It can be, but it does not necessarily have to be. Our employees are free to organize their work packages as it fits best for them.
How to organise Flexi work
Of course, this model requires certain framework conditions to avoid chaos, but it is important to us not to prescribe too much and to give our employees the opportunity to organize their everyday life in such a way that a good life-life balance is achieved and to encourage and demand personal responsibility.
For example, internally there is complete transparency of the calendars – all employees must enter when and how they can be reached – i.e. whether they work in the office or from home / remotely. This allows for better and more transparent planning and prevents disagreements outside the teams, and the client’s concerns are of course always in focus.
Often, everyday work is characterized by hours of inefficient meetings, which often only cause frustration. To prevent this, we have also adapted our meeting structure – every meeting must already contain the Purpose and Goal in the invitation and only those people who are effectively and directly affected by the topic are really called in.
Under this method, we aim to better the time management and efficient communication between our team members.
For us, Future Work does not only mean adjusting working hours at full pay and changing the meeting structure – at HROS.io we look at this topic in a more holistic, sustainable and comprehensive way.
What is a learning journey?
To create a more sustainable focus on our employees we have also included our Learning Journeys, which are individually created and owned by each employee.
We offer them the chance to develop in those areas they need for their operational tasks on the one hand, but also to go deeper in the areas they might want to develop in the future.
Although management – and this is another important factor of our culture – is always there to listen to our employees, it is they who are closest and most directly involved in what is happening and who often know best among themselves which issues are not running smoothly at the moment and where there is room for improvement. That is why we have introduced our People & Culture Council. This council consists of four employees who were democratically elected by the entire team and who report important issues and already proposed solutions to the leadership team in close exchange and at regular intervals in order to ensure that the culture, satisfaction, and motivation at HROS.io are constantly maintained and further developed.
We know that our employees are our highest and most valuable asset and therefore we want to offer them a working environment in which they feel comfortable and can develop further.
Conclusion
The HROS.io Future Work project was launched in November 2022 and is currently in a 6-month test phase. We are aware that this project is very dynamic and that adjustments will always be necessary. Based on the experiences within the pilot project, it will be recognised where improvements are still necessary and whether the model in this form can be introduced completely and indefinitely in the company afterward.
So far, the feedback from the team, the quality of the work packages, and the motivation of the employees have been very positive. We are convinced and know that the world of work will change even more in the future and are therefore taking a first step in the new direction with this new model.
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